Windows Developer Power Tools

12.9 Easing Web Application Deployments with Web Deployment Projects

ASP.NET applications are deceptively easy to deploy. Just copy the files to the server and you’re done, right? Technically, that’s all you have to do, but there are a couple of drawbacks to that approach. With a normal Web Site project, Visual Studio does not precompile all of the code, but rather deploys the code to the server. During use, ASP.NET actually compiles the code into individual assemblies that are hosted on the server. This means that not only are there are more files that need to be deployed, but also that your code is actually out on the server, where it is more vulnerable to theft or modification.

The Web Deployment Projects add-in for Visual Studio 2005 allows you to precompile and merge all the resulting assemblies into a single assembly. This makes deployment a snap and reduces the risk involved with your code being on the server. The Web Deployment Projects add-in also includes a number of other features that ease deployment, including the ability to sign assemblies, replace web.config settings, and much more.

Visual Studio 2005 Web Deployment Projects at a Glance
Tool	Visual Studio 2005 Web Deployment Projects
Version covered	8.0.60403
Home page	http://msdn.microsoft.com/asp.net/reference/infrastructure/wdp/default.aspx
Power Tools page	http://www.windevpowertools.com/tools/57
Summary	Eases ASP.NET deployment ...